Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron, a director, producer, and screenwriter, known for her works like:

1. When Harry Met Sally (writer and producer) (1989)
2. Sleepless In Seattle (writer and director) (1993)
3. You've Got Mail (writer, producer and director) (1998)
4. Bewitched (writer, producer and director) (2005)
5. Julie & Julia (writer, producer and director) (2009)

Ephron graduated college in 1962 with a degree in journalism.  She worked for newspapers and magazines like New York, Esquire, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine.  After getting married and having her first child she began to focus on screen writing, scripting occasional television episodes and selling screenplays that were never produced.  Her screenplay for Silkwood (1983) was made into a successful film.  In the same year she wrote a novel that was later produced to  film, Heartburn.  She became one of the most sought out writers in the business.  Then in 1989, she wrote the script for When Harry Met Sally.  Ephron tried to turn to directing to protect her writing career in an industry that was male dominated but failed when she directed This Is My Life.  She then became very well known for romantic comedies when she wrote Sleepless In Seattle in 1993.

Sources for Post 5:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001188/

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/eph0bio-1

See Jane

"Kids need to see entertainment where females are valued as much as males" - Geena Davis

Wouldn't it be great to have males and females be portrayed equally in film and television? It seems impossible sometimes but, is it really? Media is a way to reach out to many people of all kinds of race, gender, class level and age.  This still does not change the fact that females are portrayed differently than men and it affects everyone, starting with young kids.  How are future generations supposed to change the present if women are still part of the minority group in all aspects.

Geena Davis, an Academy Award winning actress, founded this institute in 2004.  After watching TV with her young daughter she realized the lack of female lead roles in film and television.  Her main goal is to change female portrayal in children's media and entertainment and change how girls and women are reflected in media.  This institute wants to pin-point gender inequalities.  She began this with See Jane which is a program that is part of her institute.  This program was a research project on gender in film and television, which was the largest research project ever be set in motion.  In this research, she learned that in family films, there is a one to three ratio between female and male characters and only 17% of characters are female in a group scene.

The institute is the only one in the media and entertainment industry which focuses on research for gender equality, wanting to create a larger variety of female characters and reducing stereotypes.  These research projects ARE making a difference.  The results of these projects are in high demand by organizations that support wanting to empower women along with young girls.  It is considered a leader on gender in media and has had some effects at "major networks, studios, production companies, guilds and agencies".  "In a survey following the December 2010 Second Symposium on Gender in Media, more than 90% of attendees stated that the information they learned will influence how they perceive gender balance and stereotypes in their work, and 98% will share and utilize our research findings with their peers and in their companies".  Now this may not seem that important, but the fact that people are willing to use this information to make a change in the way women are portrayed in film and television will make a difference, it just won't be immediate.

The different programs used to try and make a difference with this gender inequality issues are a few.  Besides the See Jane research project, they have the Guess Who video series where young girls of ages six to nine are informed about gender stereotypes.  They have partnered with the Sarasota Film Festival to add media training for high school and college filmmakers.  The digital newsletter SmartBrief updates on different breaking news, trends, research and insights on gender in media world wide.  The institute also created the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media Focus on Diversity and Gender Equality Award Scholarship after partnering with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences College Television Awards.  The Geena Davis Institute's partners include The Advocates of Human Rights, California Commission on the Status of Women, Girls Inc, The White House, Women in Film and Women's Media Center to just name a few.

In an article published in 2006 in Ms. Magazine, A Girl's Own Story, where they wrote about her project See Jane and Davis begins by saying, well wishing, that while she was walking the red carpet a little girl tugged at her dress and told her that seeing her movie where she was the first female president made her want to be president one day.  How different would it be if the United States was run by a woman instead of a man?

Post 4 sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8YKe5EGBqY

http://www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org/index.php

http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2006/girlsstory.asp

Female Directors

Searching for female filmmakers was easy but very limited. I just kept in mind two things: 1) Majority of big Hollywood movies will be and are directed by men; 2) Based on the Feminist Frequency video blogs, looking for female directors making movies that centralize on women are close to impossible. So its safe to say that the only places that is relevant to look at would be at film festivals.

For some reason I really wanted to find an Asian American director but that was also close to impossible and the only interesting director I found was Debbie Lum- "a San Francisco-based filmmaker and editor. SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE is her feature-length directing debut. For years she worked as a documentary editor; her editing credits include A.K.A DON BONUS (winner, National Emmy), KELLY LOVES TONY (nominee, IDA Best Documentary) which she also co-produced and TO YOU SWEETHEART, ALOHA (winner, Audience Award, VC LA Film Festival). In the editing room, she has worked with notable directors, Spencer Nakasako, Wayne Wang and Philip Kaufman. She has also written and directed several short comedies, CHINESE BEAUTY, A GREAT DEAL! and ONE APRIL MORNING, which have screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival among many other festivals, according to http://www.seekingasianfemale.com/ 


She is working on a documentary called "Seeking Asian Female" about an aging man who has the "yellow fever" and finds a wife in China. The story is about their life back here in United States, in which the man learns the difficulties between the language barrier and the happily ever after was not exactly how he pictured. I thought this story is extremely funny because in many cases this is very common, or at least to the Asian community. Many women in China simply just want to come to America, thinking America is the land of opportunities and life overall is better. Unfortunately, that's not how it turns out to be. Lum as an Asian American woman herself ends up being the translator for the interracial couple, which gives her even more of auteurship because not only is she able to present the story the way she wants, she is a crucial aspect of the documentary. Additionally, the story holds more value and creditability due to the fact that she is Asian and is someone who is particularly familiar with the term "Asian Fever" and understands to a deeper level on the desires of Chinese women wanting to come to America. I feel that this documentary would be very attractive to the Asian American community.

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Another talented and creative director that I came across is Lucy Mulloy, and her film "Una Noche." She won the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award for Emerging Narrative Filmmaker in 2010 and this year's (2012) Best New Narrative Director Award at Tribeca Film Festival. According to TFF, Lucy Mulloy graduated from NYU film school. She is an Oxford alum and has been nominated for a Student Academy Award. Her film Una Noche won the Spike Lee Production Grant, Hollywood Foreign Press Association Grant, TFI Creative Promise Emerging Narrative Award, and more. She is currently developing Una Noche Más.


There are not much information on her, yet, because she is still relatively new to the film industry. She is extremely talented. As a writer for the Hunter Word, I was able to apply to Tribeca Film Festival to cover their screenings this year. Unfortunately, due to conflicting schedules, I was unable to attend the screenings of "Una Noche" but I did attend a Tribeca Talk panel session and Lucy Mulloy was one of the guest speakers. By the mere definition of auteur theory, in which the story reflects the director's personal creative vision, Mulloy is a good example. During the panel, Mulloy talked a lot about the challenges she had while making her film. First and foremost, she lived in Havana, Cuba for years doing her search for the film, which is where she shot the film. Secondly, during the booming digital era, she shot her entire movie in 35mm film! (Shooting in film has decreased drastically because everything is digital and instant playback feds on this constant need to see exactly what you shot right away, so that was a pretty bold move for a new filmmaker). Mulloy goes on and talked about wanting to capture the authenticity of her footage and expressed her love for film, "It would be a dream come true if I can also shoot my next movie on film as well," she said. Although shooting in Havana, cameras were not as accessible to her and there were no labs there, which means we had ship the footage back and forth from Havana to toronto and her crew had to wait weeks to actually see the footage they previously shot, Mulloy said. 

Mulloy made sure she was able to tell her story the way she wanted it. Shooting a movie will have many challenges but sticking to core and not make changes due to outside factors will definitely be a winner! Those are just two snapshots I took at the panel. ;]

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On a tangent note:

In one of the readings about the lack of female artists and the enormous gap in the ratio of female and male artists' artwork displayed in museums made me think back to an event I covered at the Museum of Sex a few months ago. Out of the participating artists for the F*CK ART exhibit, there were only 2 or 3 female artists out of 19 in total! And at the actual event, I was only able to find 4 artists to interview, all male of course. I have no idea why none of the female artists came. Hmms.... anyways here's my article if anyone is interested. F*ckBike.

Mala, Mala!  

I came upon this interesting video on "Kick Starter,"  featured as "Dan & Antonio present MALA MALA."  Even the term "Mala" depending on the way it is used, can have a different meaning.  In this instance, the first (lets paint it pink), attempts to station the sense of the word in a conversation of friends, joking around.  The other (let paint if red),  attempts to station the sense of the word in a heated conversation with the same friends.  But, the point is that there is a double entendre in the use of "Mala, Mala," which I think is a great starter on  the conversation of is "that a woman, or a man, and does it really matter" kind of thing.....  MALA, MALA is a feature documentary about the lives of young transsexuals and drag queens in Puerto Rico.  

Since we are on the topic of auteur theory and first person voice, I thought this proposed production , by two males, gave me an interesting insight about the issue of transitive voice, that is, the voice of the participant and subject of the film, is in a way "transferred" to the "male director."  The query then becomes does that transfer in any way "dilute" the "signature" of the  "drag queen"?  The director/film maker appears to make a conscious effort to mirror the narrative of the subjects depicted in the film, as if he is their agent-conduit.  But, I have to wonder, is anything lost in this "transfer."  And if that is so, is it really material to the story?   Something to think about.

Judge Less & Honest Truth In The Auteur

I want to take a moment to talk/rant about the events surrounding Ashley Judd in short shrift. The scrutiny of a celebrity and the dogma of "getting work done," along with the perpetual nitpicking of the female body is, quite frankly, a disease. This cancerous outgrowth of the supremely influential mediasphere is an unfortunate cycle of competition, self-validation, disrespect, distorted image, and misunderstanding. The objectification of the human body; the judgmental and broad assumptions rooted in an inherent need to place oneself in context to others is a terrible practice that is not only commonplace, but routinely accepted as the norm.

This old tree is probably younger than patriarchy.

It is interesting to me, in her essay, that Ashley mentions the spiritual practice which she is learning from. She mentions the notion of "letting go of otheration” and removing that veil of distinction to bring her closer to her Creator. Because of how volatile the attacks on her image, the jackal-esque feast upon her temporal being at one moment in time, she felt compelled to not only respond, but penetrate the outer teaching and provide an acute lesson. It is one thing to respond and defend oneself, but to do so and point out the flaws and reasons behind the original attacks demands a deep understanding of the media and how the "wealth" of knowledge trickles into the mainstream. The most important message that she drives home is that patriarchy is a system in which women and men participate. Unfortunately, some responses to the essay were "this was probably the first time someone said anything bad about her image" or "I'd still do her" amongst other off point and cancerous responses litter the comments section under her essay. There is much work to be done in creating valuable stitches of information, yet the audience unravels the effort and pulls at the wire with such persistence that it seems futile to suture the wound any further. This proves her point.

Perhaps the audience should practice the same spirituality as Ashley Judd and view others as the self. To look at another as if looking through a mirror is a more practical approach than tearing down the image of brothers and sisters. Ashley also mentions very briefly the notion of her "Creator." I believe I am familiar with her current spiritual work, and it is safe to say that her beliefs go a long way in shedding the scrutiny of the media and the detrimental effects that come along with it.

It is important to note that Ashley Judd’s response to media is above average in its candor and will hopefully go a long way in fixing the problems brought about through media norms. It’s inspired, insightful, intelligent and should be absorbed by many. It reflects probably everything we've learned thus far in class and is a succinct analysis of why the media is flawed, and how patriarchy is at the heart of the problem.

Referencing the readings, Bell Hooks talks about the movie experience as a whole. She says that a large reason that she goes to the movies is to learn, and “often what we learn is life transforming in some way.” I find this relevant to elaborate because personally, due to of my upbringing, a lot of what I learned was through film, television, and literature. While not delving too deeply into my personal life, I learned the concept of right and wrong and saw wrong in my family in context to film. I developed biases that are carried with me to this day. Hooks also goes on to say that “…most of us, no matter how sophisticated our strategies of critique and intervention, are usually seduced, at last for a time, by the images we see on the screen. They have power over us and we have no power over them.” This is true, and it is this seduction that allows for an audience to see a puffy face in the media and attribute it to plastic surgery.

Pablo Dominguez, Post 4.

Post 5: Honest Truth In The Auteur

There is a clear lack of female representation in the film industry at large. “In 2011, women comprised 18% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films….Women accounted for 5% of directors, a decrease of 2 percentage points from 2010 and approximately half the percentage of women directors working in 1998.” This is a trend, as deliberate as it seems, that not only proves to have patriarchal ties, but adds to the frustration of those in search of the rare equal opportunity. There are successful female directors and screenwriters, but from my research, a large majority conform to tried and true formulas, most likely out of necessity. The Hurt Locker is one that comes to mind, although I feel it can be interpreted as a statement that says “yes, we can do this too, you know.”

The notion of the auteur is interesting, because to be able to point out stamps that are impressed by the author demands that one knows the nature of the author, which is not always apparent. A film I enjoyed last year that I missed in theatres, The Kids Are All Right, is one of these films that show the auteur at work. Directed and co-written Lisa Cholodenko, it moved me to the point of frustration wrought through an attachment to the characters and performances. When I first heard about the reviews of the film, I was drawn to it. I had no knowledge of the director or pedigree behind it, although I remember hearing about a female director, which I shrugged off then due to being unaware of how few there are.

It’s no surprise that Lisa Cholodenko had problems getting the film funded due to its subject matter; the mix of homosexuality, comedy, and the foreboding presence of a sperm donor . “It's a fact of my life,” she told interviewer Rachel Cooke. “I wanted to have a kid. We thought about all our options, different guys we knew. But we felt there wasn't anybody we wanted to build a family with. In any case, a friend, another person in the mix – that's really complicated.” She had a child in 2006, which she says had a transformative effect. The subject of The Kids Are All Right reflects the auteur distinctly. Additionally, she shot the film without the pomp and frills of make-up, or actors who have had plastic surgery or anything that would add to the film to make it unbelievable. Her goal was to make a film that was “not sentimental, sanctimonious or apologetic…it is a political film, in the sense that it's saying: this marriage is as messy and flawed and complicated as any other marriage.” As a result of the collaborative effort, the film went on to receive four Academy Award nominations and was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Linda Nochlin hits the nail on the head in reference to women in the field of art: “every time I go to a show of a woman artist who is interested in gender issues, or who doesn’t even know she’s interested in them, I see a new, more open, more critical, more inventive kind of feminism. It often works unconsciously, against the grain.” This is the case with Lisa Cholodenko, whether entirely intentional or unconscious, as she shaped the film using her personal life and without a doubt, went against the grain.

Recalling the guerrilla graffiti artist Princess Hijab, I feel that her work is important to mention. What she does is provide a discussion around wearing a hijab, veiled in comedic undertones, inviting one to think critically about the issue. She says her work is symbolic, and serves to disrupt what she calls “visual terrorism” of the media and advertising. The approach is very much in your face and is difficult to write off as mere vandalism, which is why it works so well. This goes back to the Linda Nochlin quote above, and relates to Lisa Chlodenko’s vision that attempts to create a real, thought provoking, and honest means of delivering a message.

Sources:

http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/research.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/03/lisa-cholodenko-independent-women-directors

http://www.artnews.com/2007/02/01/where-the-great-women-artists-are-now/

http://bitchmagazine.org/article/veiled-threat

-Pablo Dominguez

Cunt, Bitch, and Slut - CBS

For a long period of time language, specifically - deragatory terms, have been used to demean women and make them feel less suprior to men. Women walk around hearing such words as "bitch," "slut," and "cunt" thrown at them from every direction. To some it shames them but there are women out there who have tried to bring positive connotations to those words and use them in an enpowering way. For our group project we decided to talk about how the meaning of these terms changed over the years and the way each of them have been reclaimed and not reclaimed. How the media was a positive tool used for the reclamation process. We conducted short interviews with many Hunter College students about their thoughts on the words "bitch, slut, and cunt," how it's used in their lives and if they believed society could/would ever reclaim them. We got both female and male perspectives on the issue to make it more balanced out so we hope you enjoy the final product.

Tess

Jason

Sora

Xin Wen

Actress Turned Film director/Filmmaker

With actress Angelina Jolie recently directing In the Land of Blood and Honey and Scarlett Johansson set to take her turn behind the camera, today’s audience hardly seem to bat an eyelid at the fact that the director chair may be filled by a well-known sexsymbol. At least not compared to the 1960’s mixed reception that greeted a blonde Swedish actress, with a well-established career in Sweden and Britain, when she decided to make the same move. As her movies would show Mai Zetterling was not interested in the typical depiction of females at the time but would challenge the stereotypes, replacing them with strong and individualistic women who did not live idealistic lives. 

 

Mai Zetterling started out as an actress at the age of seventeen at Dramaten, the Swedish National Theater. Its Director Alf Sjoberg would play a significant role in Zetterlings career as he ended up directing her in Frenzy/Tornment in 1944, which was her first feature film. Other significant rolls would come in Basil Deardens Frieda and Ingmar Bergman’s Music in the Dark.

 Zetterlings feature film debut as a director was in 1964 with Loving Couples. About the mixed reviews that this movie received Zetterling wrote in her autobiography “ All Those Tomorrows” that “I was horrified to read that ‘Mai Zetterling directs like a man.’ What did that mean?” Further more she realized that “as an actress she was considered no threat.” However when she decided to take charge behind the camera “she was not the same any more in the eyes of men.” 

I should mention that Loving Couples is a movie where Zetterling “attacks the sexual double standard and images of marriage and childbirth”. This movie was banned from Cannes film festival because it was deemed to “obscene”. Zetterling then made Night Games, a movie where she wrote the original script as well as directed. Night Games just as Loving Couples was banned from a festival because of its content, but this time it was the Venice Film Festival.


I have always been fascinated with strong professional women. It is empowering and inspirational for girls when they see that these women make a difference, a change to or an affect in their chosen career. Mai Zetterling made a difference to film and I believe she was very inspirational. Her power to get something said was bigger once she stepped behind the camera then when she was in front of it. About this she stated in her autobiography All Those Tomorrows "The change I had to make was positive and, in the end, the only way." (as quoted on: http://www.tcm.com)

            Debra Zimmerman writes in Women Make Movies that "sometimes to me what's most feminist is the thing that doesn't stand up and shout feminism" and "filmmakers don't just live in the world of production, they also live in the real world, which is the world of the audience." What I have read about Zetterling points at the fact that she didn't start out with an interest in feminism. She saw subjects in society, people outside the norm as for example the Eskimo seal hunters. Maybe her work was feminist in the way that it wasn't.  She saw the issues, including women's issues, and people from a woman's perspective, a perspective worth showing the audience. The critiques that she received however seem to have encouraged her to further explore feministic themes.

In 1983 Zetterling directed Scrubbers a British movie about young females at a Borstal, a home for juvenile delinquencies. Although the movie is a bit dated it grabs the viewer with realism in the depiction of place, time, and characters.  As I watched the movie I remembered a line from Catherine Saalfield's Art-Activism, "'I can't separate my work into either art or activism' said Saalfield unequivocally. ' For me, filmmaking is the most efficient, creative and satisfying form of activism." It feels like something that would apply to Zetterling. She used art to make a clear statement. Furthermore what Humm writes about Gorries in Author/ Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film, "Women's social reality provides Gorris with luscious material" seem to definitely apply to Zetterling as well. And not just with this movie. Zetterling had already made The Girls in 1968. There the 3 main characters are comparing their lives to that of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata. They realize that not much has changed for women, in terms of women's liberation which would send a strong message to Mai's contemporaries in 1968. 

 

Sources:

Mai Zetterling-IMDB

 

Mai Zetterling-TMC 

 

Mai Zetterling 

 

Mai Zetterling ( swedish site) 

 

Scrubbers Youtube video 

 

Readings from class:

 

Zimmerman- Women Make Movies

Saalfield- Art-Activism

Humm- Author/ Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film

 

Neutral Reaction

  The area where we feel the most relaxed  and thus the most influential ,when talking about media, is movie projector. Woman by learning the tools for delivering their ideas via cameras started to give light also to the inner lives of women and humanity overall. 

    Watching the movies of so many genres by so many artists , we can hear own desires very often.But is that the truth?! As Sally Potter said :” It not about what we want ,but what we can hear                                                                                                                                                                                                                   within ourselves (Contemporary  Auteur). Indeed ,the only way to hear that truth is to focus on ourselves and not nurture the labels .

 Searching about the director  Sally Potter, I was amazed how nicely I was introduced into real machete of filmmaking . In her explanations about the collaborative work in filming ,she just  stated the fact  without  attacks on dominated male directors or male’s world. She said that her vision is a base for movie,but not expressible if there are not the other artists “Also, maybe female directors are more willing to give credit to the people that they work with because women know that there is an enormous amount of invisible labor involved in cinema, and women historically have usually done the invisible work in the home and the workplace. You don't want to do that to other people. You want to make sure that the things people do are recognized and given credit”(Contemporary Auteur).
      As following her visions, she never openly wanted to talk about the feminism, even though she is , because she is aware of many people who are not informed properly about that word. That understanding gives her especially that freedom. Why she should battle against the patriarchy, and on that way exhausting her self. She just know who she is and her opinions she shows  through her own work.

Through out her twenty active years as a director ,her most successful movie is “Orlando”. That movie she was preparing for eight years. From many angles she approached the importance of inner lives of people. She chosen the “Orlando” ,written by Virginia Wolf, novel which does not rely on unity of time ,place and actions.On that way she felt complete freedom to show beauty of soul.She explaines:”I am trying to restore to people that sense of themselves ,which has nothing to do with gender ,time or circumstance.It’s about the immortal soul”.(Senses of Cinema) Orlando ,also the main character ,is a person who ,either playing the man or later woman ,always feels the same. Potter strengthens that feeling by putting attention on different characters that change with a changing of Orlando’s sex.
           However , paying attention for her inner world ,she dedicated herself to dance ,especially tango.She realized that depiction of a soul is seen through movements .That she started to use as the main language in the movies.That Sally's combining of two passion ,dance and director,culminated with movie "Orlando".This movie also brought her on the list amigo other director and Sally rect to that  that this movie was conformation of her love to herself first.
         Also  being an actress in her movies ,such as "The Tango Lesson" shows her strong impulse of this kind of art and her strong independency.Thus playing and challenging our imagination we are closer to ourselves and at that way blind for limitations that we can face.



Work Cited:




Potter, Sally, The Contemporary Auteur,by Krisy Widdicombe http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/publications/16+/potter.html

Potter ,Sally ,Cinema of Senses Sally%20Potter%20%7C%20Senses%20of%20Cinema.webarchive

Kim Longinotto

Kim Longinotto is an Eglish documentary filmmaker, known as feminist director who describes women who struggle with racial oppression, discrimination, and violence. She creates films inly with female  crews. She focuses on women's issue world wide; the counties she focuses on hew works  are England, Japan, Iran,Kenya and Cameroon.

 Divorce Iranian Style‬ is a documentary in 1999, revealing extreme gender discrimination in Iran. Longinotto focuses on a family court, which symbolizes gender-based double standards, and gives a glimpse into the sufferings of women forced into the abyss.. While men are allowed to choose divorce on their free will, women do not have the right. A "wife" must wager her entire life when she files for divorce. Deprived of rights, women wave the hem of the chadol, symbol of oppression, and call out, cry and sue as long as their voices hold out, clinging onto pale hopes as though thirsting for freedom.

‪   This documentary is relevant not only to gender issues but also religion. In the article of Veiled Threat by Arwa Aburawa Bitch Magazine, the controversial works of  Princess Hija's on billboards are indicated.The reason her representation of her is controversial is its extremely against the religious beliefs and rules, and claimed as anti-feminist. However, a women commented on her action saying "'I’d actually love it if it turns out she’s not a Muslim, because it lends credibility to the idea that the dislike of being exposed to ‘visual aggression’ is not necessarily rooted in religious belief. Fed up with women being used to sell products, hijabizing ads could be a way to ‘take back’ women’s rights to their bodies.'” (Aburawa) I agree with her point that visual aggression’ is not necessarily rooted in religious belief. Also, I really like Princess Hija's works because they convey immesurable messages, and the responses from different race, gender and ethnicity, reveal the gender inequality and unjust society for women. "Her work attempts to remove the hijab from its gendered and religious context and convert it into a symbol of empowerment and re-embodiment.
"(Aburawa)



   SISTERS IN LAW‬ is filmed in 2005, Winner of the Prix Art et Essai at the Cannes Film Festival. In the little town of Kumba, Cameroon, there have been no convictions in spousal abuse cases for 17 years. But two women determined to change their community are making progress that could change their country. This fascinating, often hilarious doc follows the work of State Prosecutor Vera Ngassa and Court President Beatrice Ntuba as they help women fight often-difficult cases of abuse, despite pressures from family and their community to remain silent. Six-year-old Manka is covered in scars and has run away from an abusive aunt, Amina is seeking a divorce to put an end to brutal beatings by her husband, the pre-teen Sonita has daringly accused her neighbor of rape.

  
   I felt extremely sad with the facts of the abuses by men, women and children are struggling with in Cameroon. At the same time, I felt the universal social change that there are some women in the community who attempts to change and solve the issues surrounding women. But still, it is far away from real gender equal society; the social gender structure remains. In the interview with ARTnews, Linda Nochlin mentioned "I don’t think that the position of women is going to cease to be problematic. That’s utopian. We live in a world where women are oppressed, where in certain countries they can’t initiate court cases, where they have marriage thrust upon them. Even polygamy is coming back, and some forms of oppression are tied to religion. This happens around the world. These issues are not going to go away."

     SHINJUKU BOYS introduces three onnabes who work as hosts at the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo. Onnabes are women who live as men and have girlfriends, although they don't usually identify as lesbians. As the film follows them at home and on the job, all three talk frankly to the camera about their gender-bending lives, revealing their views about women, sex, transvestitism and lesbianism. Alternating with these illuminating interviews are fabulous sequences shot inside the Club, patronized almost exclusively by heterosexual women who have become disappointed with real men. This is a documentary about the complexity of female sexuality in Japan in 1996.

<Work Cited>
Women Make Movies - Kim Longinotto
Divorce Iranian Style - Yamagata Film Festival
Women Make Movies - "Sisters in Law"
Women Make Movies - Shinjuku Boys
http://bitchmagazine.org/article/veiled-threat
http://www.artnews.com/2007/02/01/where-the-great-women-artists-are-now/

"Changing how we see images is clearly one way to change the world."(p.6, Hooks) Many directors uses their work not only as entertainment but as their viewpoint on a matter they feel the world should be aware of. Directors not only give people something to think about but an opening to change the problems among society.According to Bell Hooks, she focus on blackness in films being much of a crucial perspective on color but on 'the perspective, the standpoint, and the politics' on the matter discussed. (p.9. Hooks)


Euzhan Palcy is one of the first black female director to have her work produced by a major Hollywood  studio(MGM). Palcy, who was born in Martinque in 1958,  works explores themes of race, gender, and politics from a  feminist perspective. At an early age , she showed her remarkable talents with the encouragement from her father.  She wrote poetry, songs, and performed drama. While living  in Martinique she even wrote  for local periodicals. At seventeen she directed and acted in La messagere (1974) which was a short play for televison. She went on to study  literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. While there, she simultaneously studied cinema at the Rue Lumiere School. Palcy approach in her creativity was to create films that  focus on black presence in the society. 

One of Euzhan Palcy most famous work is A Dry White Season (1989). This is a film about a young black school teacher, Ben du Toit, who have been insulted in his life by the horrors of the  apartheid  in South Africa. Ather the death of a gardner,  Ben du Toit  investigate the police and arouses his suspicions, he decides to probe into this matter and ensure that no one gets away with murder. He later get betrayed by his own people. 

Works Cited:


"FILM EXHIBITIONS." MoMA. Web. 02 May 2012. <http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1173>.


IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 02 May 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097243/plotsummary>


"Bio." Web. 02 May 2012. <http://www.euzhanpalcy.co/Bio.html>.


Introduction "Making Movie Magic" from Reel to Real by bell hooks

A League of Their Own

 “I think all directors should at least take acting classes and see what an actor goes through. And I think all actors should try to direct and see what a director has to go through – like we don’t do it on purpose to take three hours to light the scene. I’m not thrilled with it either but that’s what it takes.”

-Penny Marshall

Director

Penny Marshall is a renowned and respected female director, and producer of several popular Hollywood feature films. She was born in The Bronx New York to a couple already working in the entertainment industry. Her father was an industrial filmmaker and her mother was a dance instructor. Her older brother, Garry Marshall, had already established himself as a successful television writer by the time she was a college graduate and provided her with her first film role in his debut as a screenwriter and producer on the 1968 feature film How Sweet It Is.

When her brother began writing and producing situation comedies he made sure to create roles for his sister Penny. Her big break did not arrive until her brother cast her and her friend Cindy Williams as Laverne and Shirley in an episode of his popular series Happy Days. Their portrayals of their characters were so successful they garnered an instant fan pool; Garry Marshall then decided to build a sitcom surrounding their characters.  

After Laverne and Shirley ended in 1983 Penny Marshall had divorced from her actor-turned-director Rob Reiner and realized that her acting career was slowing down to a halt; so she decided to take a stab at directing. Marshall learned to direct during her first few television movies and series such as The Tracey Ullman Show. She got the opportunity to direct the 1986 feature film Jumpin’ Jack Flash which starred Whoopi Goldberg and was originally scheduled to be directed by male director Howard Zieff. The film did terribly at the box-office, but Marshall was eager to try again. Her second directing effort, Big (1968), established her as a major filmmaker and the film’s star, Tom Hanks, as an A-list actor. 

Her next film, which took two years to complete, won her three Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Her next film Marshall took a look at the women who kept baseball alive when all the young men were off fighting during WWII in A League of Their Own (1992); it grew in popularity on video. Since that film she has still upheld mainstream appeal, but the success of her directorial endeavors lacked consistency and they were not as popular as her earlier works (Starpulse.com).

Penny wanted to do A League of Their Own in an authentic way and from a woman’s perspective. It was a long casting process where she did not allow any actress to read for any part unless they passed the baseball test. “The movie begins with Geena Davis’ character, Dottie Hinson, taking a trip to Cooperstown for ceremonies honoring the women’s league. What we learn about Dottie is she never took women’s baseball that seriously. She was the best player of her time, and yet, in her mind, she was simply on hold until her husband came back from war. Dugan, the coach (Tom Hanks), tells her she lights up when she plays baseball – that something comes over her, but she doesn’t seem aware of it. This ambiguity about a women’s role is probably in the movie because it was directed by a woman, Penny Marshall. A man might have assumed that these women knew how all-important baseball was. Marshall shows her women characters in a tug-of-war between new images and old values, and so her movie is about transition – about how it felt as a woman to suddenly have new roles and freedom” (Ebert).

There is a difference in storytelling because there are four models of women’s literary differences: biological, linguistic, psychoanalytical, and cultural. Penny Marshall does an excellent job at including the theory of ‘gynocentrism’ in her work. She focuses on the voices of those who are usually silenced and provides them with a megaphone. ‘Gynocentrism’ is a way of assessing works of art specifically in relation to the interests and desires of women; it involves a separate female way of thinking and recognition that women’s experience has been effectively silenced by a masculine culture. Marshall challenges and questions the domesticity of women and their limiting gender roles compared to men by not framing these women in a voyeuristic way (Humm).

However, other viewers see the portrayal differently; “Yes, the film is enjoyable and even inspiring at times, but it isn't the celebration of strong women that I'd thought it was when I originally viewed it. It is grossly mistitled, implying that the characters have control over circumstances and infrastructure that they clearly didn't. Playing baseball invites public scrutiny, and many critics suggest that women engaged outside of the home are more masculine than their domestic brethren. In the film we eventually see that the fates of these female athletic careers are dependent on the return of men from war. When league founder Mr. Harvey decided women’s baseball is no longer of interest he nearly dismantles the league, something the players hardly saw coming and were never given a chance to protest. It is not so much a league of their own” (Rigel).

Work Cited

Ebert, Roger. "A League of Their Own." rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun-Times, 01 Jul 1992. Web.

28 Apr 2012. <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19920701/REVIEWS/207010302/1023>.

Rigel, J.. "Girls watch movies: A league of their own." Girls Leadership Institute. Girls

Leadership Institute, 2011. Web. 28 Apr 2012. <http://www.girlsleadershipinstitute.org/blog/2011/03/21/girls-watch-movies-league-their-own>.

Humm, Maggie. Author/Autor: Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film. 95-103. Print.

"Penny Marshall Biography." Starpulse.com. starpulse.com, 2012. Web. 28 Apr 2012.

<http://www.starpulse.com/Actresses/Marshall,_Penny/Biography/>.

Phipps, Ashley. "Penny Marshall." IMBD. IMBD.com, 2012. Web. 28 Apr 2012.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001508/bio

Roberta the Experimenter

I discovered Roberta Torre only a little while ago and since then I have heard her compared to several famous male directors - Fellini, Almodovar … It occurred to me that she may not have found her own voice as an auteur yet. BUT on her way to finding it she is experimenting, breaking boundaries and learning valuable lessons from trials other directors may not have braved.

Torre began as a documentary film maker and "clearly, she has not renounced her background". For her version of the Romeo and Juliet story, "South Side Story" (a play off of 'West Side Story') she chose not to use professional actors. In her take, Torre tells the love story between a Nigerian immigrant and a native Sicilian and uses this new take to outline the hardships of integration. For her actors, the director sought out … African girls at night, while they were on the streets working." Apparently during the filming, one was even deported. However, Torre doesn't regret the self-imposed challenge of working with these women. She has said that she has a better understanding of humanity through these girls. 

It is that dedication to honest and barrier-pushing work that draws me to Torre. Whenever you come across an article about Torre, it is noted that she was the first director to ever make a musical about the mafia. This is something unexpected, edgy and difficult to pull off in both an artistic and entertaining manner. According to most critics, she did so. Despite controversy surrounding the nature of her experimental work, Torre refuses to compromise. Footage for her film I back mai dati "was judged as being too crude," the director told one reporter. She continued, "I was forced to cut and revise. So, to be independent, I decided to found my own production house, 'Rosettafilm'.

The film of hers I saw,  Lost Kisses, is a surreal satire about a 14 year old girl who claims that a beheaded statue of the Madonna told her in her dreams where to find the missing piece of the statue. It's  a humble and quirky movie with a focus on humour and whimsical, stylized bits that are woven in with the more realistic scenes of the movie. This reminds me of what feminist and Professor of Modern Art told ARTnews interviewer Barbara McAdam:

"I don’t think the work all came out of the vagina or anything like that ...  These women wondered, How am I going to place myself in relation to the art language of today? ... the work could be made out of something ephemeral; that it was going to be antigeometric in a sense ...  that it might be vulnerable and subject to disappearance—all of which reads as somehow feminine" (1).

Although here, the professor is speaking about abstract art, the idea of focusing on something that is ephemeral and antigeometric rather than thinking about the pressures of permanency and grandeur rings true to Torre's work. She may not be considered an auteur yet but Torre certainly has the passion, courage and commitment to integrity that it takes to become one.

A clip from Lost Kisses, however not one that shows its whimsical and surreal side ...

Works Cited
"Open Roads: New Italian Cinema". Film-Forward.Com, June 1-8, 2011. Web. April 2012.

Azzolini, Mauro. "Roberta Torre Strikes Again". Best of Sicily Magazine. 2001. Web. April 2012.

Felletti, Francesca. "Roberta Torre". L'Uomo Vogue. March 2011. Web. April 2012.

MacAdam, Barbara A. "Where the Great Women Artists Are Now". ARTnews Online Magazine.  February 01 2007. Web. April 2012.

Lisa Cholodenko

"I was painstaking about casting. I thought, if this isn't spot on, it isn't going to work. When I was talking to my casting director [about a particular actor], I would say, has she had work? And if they told me 'maybe', I would say, in that case, no. I wanted the film to say this is what a 52-year-old woman looks like and she's still sexy. It took me so long to cast....The problem is that most of them [Hollywood actresses] have had work and it's just horrible! There's no way you can say that they don't look different. They don't even look younger – they just look weird. They say, oh, my eyes are drooping. But is it really any better to have them so high to your forehead?" 

Above is a quote from an article where Lisa Cholodenko talks about her film, The Kids Are Alright, as well as women directors in Hollywood. 

The Auteur Theory definitely played a role for Lisa Cholodenko in her film, The Kids Are Alright. The film is about two children conceived by artificial insemination, who then want to bring their birth father into their family life.  "Cholodenko and her co-writer, Stuart Blumberg, began working on their script in 2004. But the delay in getting the film made wasn't only to do with the laborious process of financing. In 2006, Cholodenko and her partner, Wendy Melvoin, had a baby by a sperm donor themselves and though the project had by then been given the green light, she put work on hold while she was pregnant. The film, then, deals with something that Cholodenko might one day have to cope with herself, though unlike Nic and Jules, the characters in her film, Cholodenko did not use an anonymous donor. I had worried that she would want to separate her life and the film quite decisively, but she is delightfully straightforward when it comes to it."(The Guardian/The Observer)


With films that have woman in them and focus on those woman, it would be nice to have a female director or producers perspective instead of a males perspective. In "Auther/Auetor" on page 11 the author states "What I am suggesting is that feminist literary theory can offer some strategically useful tools for feminist film study. Feminist literary critics have already made a firm decision that gender shapes signature and that there is an aesthetic difference in the way in which gendered signatures write...As Josephine Donovan optimistically claims this kind of gynocriticism can provide a validating social witness that will enable women today and in the future to see, to express, to name their own truths' because as Antonia points out, if there is no heaven 'this is the only dance we dance'." I think it is important to understand and notice this while watching movies and from that look at ourselves and at society as a whole. What are these movies, the ones directed, written or produced by men about women all have in common? They are from a male perspective. 

In The Kids Are Alright, Lisa shows that every family has their issues but regardless of how different we all look and the circumstances we are in, we can all somehow relate. Lisa is well aware that is hard out there for a woman director in Hollywood. The Screen Daily put out an article in January explaining that the "Percentage of women directors in Hollywood declining." In the article it states that "women account for just 5% of directors working in Hollywood, representing a 2% decrease from 2012." How can we look at films about women or any other "relatable" film for women, if it is mostly directed and written by a man? "Filmmaking has become more of a business, the studios have become more interested in minimizing their risk." 


Below is a personal interview, where Lisa Cholodenko is asked questions about her film and her relationship to it as well as other important topics, such as bullying. 

Citations: 

The Guardian/The Observer: Lisa Cholodenko: 'I wanted to make a film that was not sanctimonious or sentimental'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/03/lisa-cholodenko-independent-women-directors

Screendaily.com 
http://www.screendaily.com/news/production/percentage-of-women-directors-in-hollywood-declining/5036871.article


Author/Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory And Feminist Film